As we made our way north on 395, we came to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest, where some of the trees are over 4000 years old, and some of the wood lying on the ground is over 7000 years old. When I attended my first seminar with Galen Rowell, we were going to photograph the Bristlecones, but the road was closed due to a late snow. These trees have such a distinctly orange color to them that when they are photographed at sunset, they really glow. Unless you’ve seen them in person, you would think the photos have been doctored they are so orange. We had gone up to the Patriarch Grove to photograph the trees at sunset, only there wasn’t one, as a bunch of clouds rolled in. Patriarch sits at about 11,000 ft elevation, and on our drive back down to the campground, the sun broke out and we stopped to take pictures. I was taking pictures of the sunny side of the trees to capture that warm glow when Lori said I should turn around and look at the sky. It was hard to decide what was prettier, the trees or the sunset. It was very magical, and I was glad I had the chance to see and photograph these unique trees basked in the warm glow of the setting sun.